Bibio & Dorian Concept Answer eachother on collaborative album ‘Answers’
Today, Bibio (Stephen Wilkinson) and Dorian Concept (Oliver Johnson) released their debut collaborative album Answers, out via Warp Records. Earlier the pair released their second single “Lichen Trip”, accompanied by a music video created entirely by Wilkinson and Johnson.
Having first met in 2009, the two artists have built a creative relationship over more than fifteen years, connecting through shows, shared interests, and an ongoing exchange of music and ideas. Answers sees this dialogue develop into a fully collaborative body of work, rooted in the idea of looking back as a means to move forward. Created remotely between Vienna, Wolverhampton and rural Wales, the pair exchanged compositions, video clips and ideas via email, WhatsApp and a shared folder, with each responding to what the other had sent and allowing the music to develop through an instinctive process of listening, altering, and answering. Their collaboration was prompted by Wilkinson seeing Johnson’s 2022 video for “Let It All Go”, which led him to reach out to Johnson about working together on an audio-visual project, before Bibio later featured on guitar on Dorian Concept’s 2025 release Miniature
This process extends across the album’s visual world, with five accompanying videos created by Wilkinson and Johnson. Working with analogue and early digital video cameras, VHS-C, MiniDV technology, VJ equipment, video mixers and circuit-bent analogue video gear, the pair embraced the glitches, imperfections and unexpected artefacts produced by ageing technologies. Footage captured across their surroundings became material to be manipulated and layered, with natural landscapes and everyday moments transformed through analogue and digital processes.
“Lichen Trip” takes its name from the track’s triplet rhythm, with cyclical folk guitar punctuated by a Roland SH-101 synth processed through a 2000s Eventide Orville, creating an intermeshing of organic harmonies and bending sonic trails. Bringing together guitar, piano, and synth melodies with field recordings, tape loops, and processed textures, the track reflects the curiosity, experimentation, and creative freedom that shaped Answers.
